Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Who's ready for a more leisurely pace than that of April? I am. I think of April like Germany's Autobahn. Full speed ahead, look out! Blogger in the fast lane, get OUT OF MY WAY! This trip, however, is a meandering journey through the list of participants, at your own pace, with your own rules, and very few expectations. Heather, Nicole and I (Tina) invite you to join us!

Tips for the road: you're in charge. Want to visit one new blog a day? Want to visit hundreds of blogs a day? No problem. You're driving. Unless you hitch a ride with a friend, which I think is a good idea. You might want to take turns driving, or playing the tunes. It's really just some friends hanging out and continuing visiting.

Some strategies you might want to try:

Visit all the blogs with your same category

Visit all the blogs whose names intrigue you

Visit all the even (or odd) blogs

Start from where you left off and keep on truckin'...

Whatever you do, don't forget that this trip is a journey, not a destination. Signing up on the linky doesn't mean you're committing to visiting ALL the blogs. All you're saying is, “I ain't done yet.” We'll have some encouraging rah rah posts along the way, and a chance for you to share your best “finds” along the road. Personally, I like those little Mom and Pop cafes that are off the beaten road, and the food is real and so is the atmosphere – so those cool but unknown blogs that need some customers!

Keep track of your finds, give us a holler if you run out of gas or need your tire changed. We're here as your guides – we've journeyed similar roads in the past! Good luck, and drive carefully.

Until we
tell you to pull over at our rest stops when they’re in sight!

Beep your
horns if you’re hitting the road with us to visit those 2014 A-to-Z Challenge blogs
that we missed in April!

My playlist for this year’s road trip is topped off
with “Speed Demon” by Michael Jackson and “Cruz” by Christina Aguilera as a
reminder that we can get our alphabet highway mileage in at whatever pace meets
our driving preferences -- and the capacity of our gas tanks.

Roll down your windows, folks, it's gonna be a beautiful day! There's an empty highway on the horizon and I can't wait to see where it's heading!

I know I missed a TON of amazing blogs during this year's Challenge. We had over 2000 participants, of course I missed some, but now is an opportunity to hit the road and discover all the the blogs still out there, waiting to be found.

I'm in the back seat with Stormy the Weather Gnome. I've got two experienced drivers up front, Tina & Nicole, and they can't wait to get started.

For the Road Trip, Stormy and I are going to try to hit at least 20 blogs a week and tell you about a few of them in each of my posts.That's the plan anyway, so put on some sunglasses, turn up the radio, set the cruise control, and let's get on the road!

Who's with us?~Heather @ The Waiting is the Hardest PartP.S As I was writing my first response comment below, I realized that I left someone out of this post. I want to give huge props and recognition to him, and an invitation to all of you to visit an amazing blogger, Rob Z Tobor, who writes ...The Slightly Eccentric Diary of Rob Z Tobor... He has already visited almost all the blogs. I'm hoping he'll chime in here and let us know exactly how many. I mean, you have to hit the road somewhere, right? Chances are he's already visited you ;-)

Hi TaMara, and the rest who will join us! So glad you'll be on the road with us! With 2000 blogs, I don't think anyone, except maybe the incredible Rob Z Tobor http://robztobor.blogspot.com/ who came damn close, visited all of the blogs. I aspire to his greatness, and he's hysterical too. Good artist. Yeah, I'm sayin' go visit his blog. I mean, you're just on the road right? Should probably edit the post to include this...Anyway! Welcome! It's going to be a great summer.My personal plan is to visit all the Reflections first, because I know those will be good links and that they probably finished. Then I'll hit all of you guys (but if you wrote a Reflection, then I will already have been there...We tried, oh did we try, to remove dead links and non-participants and commercial links from that loooong list, but you will find some that didn't participate. Think of that like hitting a pothole or a speed bump, or a chance for a rest-stop, take a deep breath, and then get back on the road.Or, call for the pit crew. Personally, I'll be equipped with my extensive and eclectic iTunes library, this magical blue tooth speaker cube that hooks to my iPhone, a cooler of fancy meats and cheeses, Diet Mtn. Dew, the beverage of champions, and then for pulling over at night - chardonnay! I know it's a favorite of Nicole's as well. Heather, what's your night-time beverage?Tina @ Life is GoodA to Z Team @ Blogging From A to Z April Challenge 2014

I've gotten to lots of the blogs but obviously not all so there's always some distance to be covered, especially with company! :) Will the original list stay up by the way or will it disappear after a while?

THIS linky will be open through the end of the summer, for people to join us, but THE LIST will remain "live" and visitable until the Challenge of 2015 starts.Good question! Keep 'em coming!Welcome keithchanning, musicfanadrea, Finley Jane, Alex, the Ninja Captain himself!, melaniegobledvn, and kaygetscrafty!

Hello there. This was my first challenge and although I'm totally exhausted, nothing like a trip to recharge those energy cells, so count me in! So far, I've visited about a hundred blogs after my original signup link, so I think, I'll just continue on at the same leisurely pace all the way to the end. Please wave when you see me stroll past, even offer me a beverage or two...non-alcoholic of course. ;-) See you along the way!Entrepreneurial Goddess

Oh yea...I already indicating I would be continuing to post a-z in May, so definitely in. I've continued to visit folks on the original linky in groups of 5...just picking up where I left off, and had planned to incorporate the reflections linky as well...so grabbing the badge and pealing out!Sandy at Traveling Suitcase

Rob was amazing as one of my Ambassadors. He may not always have left a comment, but he did visit every blog that had a good link and regularly filled me in whenever he found a bad link or a blog that needed to be looked at. Thank you Rob!

Great Road Trip post! I love how you presented this. Like so many others there were many blogs I never got around to and this will be a good opportunity to catch up on those.

Sorry I am a bit late arriving, I have been at an important all day meeting for work. The life of an eccentric child in cyberspace can get rather serious and busy in the real world at times as well as add a number of creaky bones and a faulty brain.

I did visit all the blogs I could during the A to Z and by that I mean all the ones that had a good link. some did not, one or two folk never got going and one or two had rather complex ways of getting to their posts.

Anyway I really appreciate being mentioned and I would never have been able to visit every blog and comment also, but I felt by visiting, it helped to improve the list overall. Sure there are blogs that have not finished the A to Z but I think everyone on it now had a go and after all it is not a competition so finishing is unimportant meeting other like minded bloggers is what it is all about. At the end of the day supporting each other in some form is to the benefit of the blogging community, so I would like to think I did my little bit to help the A to Z.. . . . . .

But I can run away again now and be grumpy until next year. . . . . . Good luck with the road trip one and all.

You guys are like the Energizer Blogging Bunnies!! Full of good ideas.

Easy to commit to this one since it was my intention to continue visiting bloggers on the list. I think it is a terrific idea to start with the ones who wrote reflection posts. And I like that we are in charge - so I can pace my visits - summer will be less computer time as golf, biking and gardening beckon. Also I can decide if I want to visit one of their A to Z posts or a more current one.

I hate the "hi, I visited" or "nice post" comment when you do take time to read a post, can't find anything to relate to, and know it's not a blog you will follow. I decided to take the Goodwill Ambassador approach (no, Tina, that is NOT encouragement for you to head to thrift shops) and leave something like the following, "Hi. I'm a fellow A to Z 2014 Survivor making the rounds to thank you for your participation in the Challenge. It would not be a success without bloggers like you." What do you think? I'm trying to get away from any hint that I'm promoting myself by visiting and not following...............

My dopey human is sleeping, Mr. R. I left the comment on Tina's gosh darn lovable blog :) Gary is a virtual recluse who knows you aint grumpy. In fact, you mean well and now we want to show the world you mean well.

Wow. So you did hit them all. AMAZING! You deserve to go do whatever you like, but I don't consider you grumpy...wonderfully eccentric, but not grumpy. Unless you like Grumpy, then you can be Grumpy. Personally, I don't think any of the dwarfs from Snow White are me. I mean, I'm certainly not Bashful, though a case could be made for Doc, considering what I've been through medically...

Thanks for chiming in and for reinforcing what we're all about. Winning is connections with others!!!!

This sounds like just the road trip I was planning. Much more fun to do it with friends. Love your posts above. I feel the wind blowing through my hair. Looking forward to the ride. Maria, "http://delightdirectedliving.blogspot.com/"

I'm confused is this for reflections post as well ... Is there a separate linky for that? There are so many themes I would love to catch up on - 2000 + challengers this year was thrilling as well as overwhelming.... See you on the road...

The Reflections post does have its own separate sign-up which is now closed. You can use that list to start your Road Trip since it's smaller--though starting with the Road Trip list would also be a good place to start. Over the upcoming months you can continue with the master A to Z list which can be found in the tab at the top of this page.. What an epic journey!

You should have a link for the road trip at the top of the website too. That would be another list to go to and it would be nice to be able to get back to that post quickly. Maria, Delight Directed Living